Buhari and national detoxification 0
BY OUR REPORTER ON FEBRUARY 1, 2016 BACK PAGE / COLUMNS, THE FLIPSIDE - ERIC OSAGIE
I am searching for the right word to describe what’s going on right now in our country. Watching tele vision, reading online news, listening to the radio, reading the newspapers, the news all over is the shocking revelation of funds paid out for phoney businesses or contracts not executed or meant to be executed in the first place. Many are making startling confessions to the illegal deals contracted; some are making secret refund of ill-gotten money sourced from the collective till.

Big names we had hitherto respected and imbued with toga of integrity are failing and falling to the integrity test. What a country!

The word that comes readily to mind in the ugly revelation of sleaze in high places that took place in the immediate past administration is: Detoxification. National detoxification. Purgation. Wikipedia de fines detoxification or detoxication or detox for short as: “The physiological or medicinal removal of toxic substances from a living organism, including the hu man body, which is mainly carried out by the liver.” In our own case, the liver was almost gone. We were a nation walking on a diseased liver, brutally at­tacked by vicious predators.

What President Buhari is doing is akin to cleans ing the Nigerian liver, afflicted by those who poi soned it with greed and graft; those who attacked the treasury in commando-style during the years of the locusts. It’s a tough, painful process. There will be bleeding. There will be gnashing of teeth, but the liver will come out functioning better. If we don’t detox now, chances are that we may atrophy and stagnate, even kaput. God forbid. So, let the music play on.

Of course, there’s the hue and cry that in the on going detox, the doctor carrying out the exercise is turning a blind eye to other toxins that took part in polluting the system, and even allowing them to as sist him in the cleansing process. How could a physi cian bent on performing acceptable surgery do that? How could he be attacking a set of toxic substances, while allowing another set a free rein?

For me, all toxins and toxic substances must be flushed out for Nigeria to remain whole and healthy once more. No sacred toxin. Every toxin is danger ous to the liver in the detoxification process. No vi rus, I am told by those knowledgeable in the science of virus, virologists, should be allowed to survive and thrive in a cleansing process.

On December 14, 2015, in this column, I had noted how no one in his or her wildest imagination could have contemplated the furious attack on the treasury in such cavalier manner, in such gluttonous ravage as we are daily being availed of by prelimi nary investigations into the armsgate.

Yet, I am told by a senior administration official that what we are seeing is only a tip of the iceberg. He told me on phone: “By the time investigations are over, you will be shocked at the level of looting that took place. We are still scratching the surface. The names of those who have looted the country will shock you. You just wait and see!”

I am already shocked by the much we have heard. I am already heartbroken to read of the billions and multi-millions that went out under spurious circum stances. I am too tongue-tied to hear stories of di version of public funds from the purpose it was ear­marked.

When Borno State Governor, Alhaji Shettima, said Boko Haram insurgents appeared better armed and kitted than our soldiers, he was dismissed and called all sorts of names. With the revelations of di version of arms fund now out, is it not possible there are some truths in Shettima’s statement? Is it not possible that some deaths could have been avoided if the money didn’t just disappear? Is it not pos sible that the war could have been more decisively prosecuted if all resources had been thrown into it?

Yes, investigations are ongoing. Yes, those men tioned so far are presumed innocent until proven otherwise by a competent court of law. But the al legations so far are mind-bogging. Even the reasons for the disbursement of the funds are even more baffling. There were allocations for bogus con­sultancies; campaign expenditures were also alleg edly taken care of from security vote; others for no reason whatsoever. Yet, the general purpose for the released fund was for the purchase of arms for our soldiers locked for over six years in an internecine battle with the Boko Haram insurgents!

Outraged as the citizens ought to be at the sordid episode, anger is not just enough; we must encour age the government to get to the root of this sordid scandal that weakens and diminishes all of us. Cul prits must be fished out and prosecuted. Those im plicated must have their day in the courts of law and made to face justice.

But, the government must not mess up its case by hasty or frantic pronouncements that prejudge the accused. They must not give the impression of unfairness, bias, witch-hunt or persecution in the prosecution of those it has accused of diversion of public funds. The judiciary must be allowed to do its work unfettered, without undue interference or influence. Impunity must not be used to fight impu nity. Court judgements must be respected, no matter government’s indignation; otherwise it loses some thing called sense of fairness in the court of public opinion.

Also, the government must ensure that the fight against corruption does not wear the toga of ‘selec tiveness.’ Let all who have sinned be made to dance naked in the public square. Whether they are PDP or APC sinners, the law ought to be blind to all senti ments. That is the way to go in what someone has dubbed the purgatory and purification process going on in the country. At the end of the day, wherever the fight gets to, the nation will learn a lesson or two from it. Let the music play on.

However, for this columnist, we must as a nation look beyond the current armsgate, to x-ray the whole concept of ‘security vote.’ Let’s face it, security vote has, for quite a while, become the conduit for siphon ing public funds by elected government officials, es­pecially states’ chief executives and the presidency. Hiding under that sub-head, all kinds of slush funds are funnelled through it, including money for mis tresses, concubines and wild parties. Even without security votes, there are all kinds of secret votes for greedy leaders to prey. Remember the PTDF fund controversy between former President Obasanjo and his deputy, Atiku Abubakar? Then, it emerged that the nation’s president funded his extracurricular af fairs from PTDF funds, an agency that should have been in the forefront of technological development deploying resources from petroleum resources! But not under OBJ, who allegedly allocated oil blocs to presidential mistresses and daughters-in-law!

Indeed, security votes have become oil bloc for most of our elected executive leaders. There is no state today whose chief executive does not enjoy a robust security vote, even in states tottering under the weight of insecurity. However, there are some states whose governors are truly deploying security vote for its purpose. But for many, it’s a bazaar. Seri ously, is there no way a law can be made compelling those who enjoy the privilege of security vote to be made to fully account for its disbursement? Is there a law saying that those who divert security votes can’t be punished or made to vomit all or some of what they had swallowed? Lawyers and those versed in jurisprudence of criminal law can offer some insight in that regard.

Surely, the armsgate is one scandal that won’t die or fade from public glare too easily. Its stench is suf focating. It is splattering everywhere after hitting the fan. No deodorant has been manufactured just yet to mellow the stench. Oh, what a country!